Student a 'whiny little boy,' teacher in anti-Christian case says

Feb. 17, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Chad Farnan, who graduated from Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo last year, speaks at an October 2009 campaign fundraiser in Irvine for Shawn Black, a GOP candidate for the 70th Assembly District. Black's campaign characterized Farnan as one of Orange County's leading conservative youths. FILE PHOTO: CHERYL A. GUERRERO, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Capistrano Valley High School history teacher James Corbett, a 38-year educator sued by one of his former students, describes his teachings as fair and accurate. FILE: CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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This December 12, 2007 file photo shows Chad Farnan at Capistrano Valley High. Farnan sued his former history teacher, James Corbett, in December 2007 for purportedly making anti-Christian comments in class. Farnan said he would have dismissed the lawsuit if Corbett had been removed from his post. FILE PHOTO: ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Capistrano Valley High School history teacher James Corbett PhD. Corbett, a 38-year public school educator, has posted frequently on Orange County Register message boards over the course of his three-year legal battle with Farnan, but his comments Saturday were the first to directly attack Farnan's academic and personal life. Farnan is now 19 and a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu. FILE: KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Chad Farnan, who graduated from Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo last year, speaks at an October 2009 campaign fundraiser in Irvine for Shawn Black, a GOP candidate for the 70th Assembly District. Black's campaign characterized Farnan as one of Orange County's leading conservative youths. FILE PHOTO: CHERYL A. GUERRERO, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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MISSION VIEJO – Capistrano Valley High School history teacher James Corbett is firing back against the student who sued him three years ago for disparaging Creationism in class, posting a series of recent comments on the Register's website in which he refers to Chad Farnan as "a whiny little boy" who didn't do his homework and whose "helicopter parents" intervened frequently in their son's affairs.

Corbett, a 38-year public school educator, has posted frequently on Orange County Register message boards over the course of his three-year legal battle with Farnan, but his comments Saturday were the first to directly attack Farnan's academic and personal life. Farnan is now 19 and a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

"Chad is a young man now," Corbett, 64, said in an interview, confirming the authenticity of his online comments. "For three years, I've kept my mouth shut. He tried to take away my job. That's what a 16-year-old boy can do. He has the power to take a teacher and put him through the wringer. ... I was labeled a Christian-bashing bigot. That's upsetting to me and my family."

U.S. District Court Judge James Selna ruled in 2009 that Corbett violated the First Amendment's establishment clause when he referred to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a 2007 classroom lecture in Advanced Placement European history. But the Santa Ana federal judge dismissed more than 20 of Corbett's other tape-recorded comments cited in Farnan's lawsuit. And Selna, noting Corbett would not have necessarily known he was violating Farnan's rights, refused to grant Farnan's request for a court injunction legally barring Corbett from disparaging religion in class.

Corbett remains employed at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo and continues to teach AP European history. A federal appeals court in Pasadena heard the case Friday, although it has yet to rule.

"This case was never about religion," Corbett wrote on the Register's message boards. "It was about a whiny little boy who admitted he didn't do his homework and (whose) helicopter parents intervened so often in school and on the water polo team that other students called him 'princess.' Neither Chad, his parents nor his lawyers, the so-called 'Advocates for Faith and Freedom,' ever made an attempt to even talk to me or attempt to resolve the issues prior to filing a lawsuit."

Corbett subsequently posted: "That's the price teachers pay when they have whiny little boys who don't do their homework who aren't willing to take responsibility for their own lack of work and seek to use religious offense as an excuse for the academic result."

Farnan's attorney, Jennifer Monk, said Corbett's comments were false, misleading and upsetting. She acknowledged that Farnan did not complete all of his summer reading assignments for Corbett's class, but emphasized Farnan was not failing at the time he dropped Corbett's class in the middle of the first semester.

"His comments really show a lot more about Dr. Corbett than they do about Chad," Monk said. "Even if it were true that Chad was a bad student, none of that has anything to do with what Dr. Corbett said in the classroom and whether it was a disapproval of religion. It doesn't matter what Chad believes and, to be honest, it doesn't matter if Chad was offended. From a legal perspective, everything Dr. Corbett said is 100 percent irrelevant, especially attacking Chad's parents."

Some of the readers who saw Corbett's comments reacted with outrage, responding directly to him online.

"(Y)ou arrogantly demean and degrade the student for questioning your actions," SURFNDONUTS posted. "I find your behavior unbecoming of an advanced placement instructor. It is no wonder your other students have not dared to question your actions. You have publically responded with viperous venom towards your former student who dared question your actions."

Added KRISLOVE2460: "Publicly slandering, and humiliating a 19-year old and his family does not make you look respectable, or professional. Quite frankly, you are humiliating yourself even more, and it is only going to make people question your maturity, as well as your credibility, and your ability to do your job."

Corbett said he wrote his comments "off the cuff." Even so, he said, he did not have any regrets about what he posted. After one outraged reader accused him of defaming his former student, Corbett fired back: "Defamation must be a FALSE statement. Please send my comments to Chad – he has a website. If I've libeled him, he should sue me."

Monk offered a terse reply to that: "I think Dr. Corbett should try to win the lawsuit that he is in."

Corbett, a self-described "smorgasbord Catholic," has long insisted he is not intolerant of religion in his classroom; rather, he says, he uses provocative rhetoric to get his students to think critically in a college-level course.

"Was the teacher set up?" VASQUEZ1 posted. "Chad is no hero. He a little pussycat who can't handle the opinion or a thought that is different from his family and church believe in."

But other readers seem to think differently – they've called Corbett everything from "a big baby" to "elitist" to "a thug and a coward" on Register message boards – and that's why he's sought to give the public a fresh perspective on the case, he said – in his own provocative way, of course.

"I don't think a lot of people are going to change their minds about me," Corbett said. "I try to say, most of the people out there don't know most of the facts. I hope that people would see the wisdom in understanding there may be more than one motive for my ending up in court. When you understand the character of some of the actors involved, it's possible to understand it didn't have anything to do with religion."

One of Corbett's main contentions, which he has discussed frequently over the years, is that Farnan's lawyers, from the pro bono Advocates for Faith & Freedom in Murrieta, have used Farnan's case as a fundraising tool.

"The 'Advocates' use the faith of others to pry money out of their pockets in the name of God," Corbett wrote on the Register's message boards. "I do wish that secular people would send me as much money as Bible thumpers have sent the 'Advocates.'"

Monk said Corbett was mischaracterizing her organization's work.

"We represent our clients pro bono, and in order to do that, we accept donations, not just in the case against Dr. Corbett," Monk said. "We have not made a ton of money fundraising off the Farnan case, and in fact we fundraise on a number of cases. We also do business and corporate work and civil litigation, and we bill our clients for that, so not only are we not living off the Farnan case, we are not living off the nonprofit."

Advocates for Faith & Freedom reported receiving $284,695 in donations and other contributions in 2008, according to its most recent tax filing posted online by the charity watchdog GuideStar.

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